The carrier's Vice President of Product Platforms Kevin McGinnis told Bloomberg that Sprint phones will eventually have near-field communication (NFC) chips inside and those phones can be waved over a terminal installed in retail stores in order to pay for items.

Items paid for via NFC will show up on a user's credit card statement, and not their cell phone bill. Sprint will likely not take a percentage of each transaction, but instead take a share of revenue generated from coupons or deals for certain retailers that users would have access to via the mobile payment system, according to the report.

All across the mobile ecosystem, companies are angling for a piece of the burgeoning mobile payments business, including wireless providers, smartphone manufacturers, credit card companies, retailers, and mobile advertisers. T-Mobile, AT&T, and Verizon have already announced they've formed a joint-venture payment system called Isis, which is expected to be ready for mobile customers this fall.

Both Amazon and Google are reportedly working on their own mobile payment networks for phones with NFC-enabled chips, and both Microsoft and Apple have reportedly been working on building phones with NFC chips inside.

Later this year, Visa is also planning to roll out its own mobile payments system via phones called PayWave.

Sprint did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the mobile payments service.

About the author

Erica Ogg is a CNET News reporter who covers Apple, HP, Dell, and other PC makers, as well as the consumer electronics industry. She's also one of the hosts of CNET News' Daily Podcast. In her non-work life, she's a history geek, a loyal Dodgers fan, and a mac-and-cheese connoisseur.
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